Small Steps Big Changes wins 2024 AIM Bespoke Accreditation Centre/Employer of the Year

Small Steps Big Changes (SSBC) has been named the 2024 Bespoke Accreditation Centre/Employer of the Year by AIM Qualifications and Assessment Group. This prestigious award recognises SSBC’s innovative bespoke training programmes, which empower its Family Mentor workforce and make a measurable difference in the lives of children and families in Nottingham.

Founded in 2015 and funded by the National Lottery Community Fund’s A Better Start programme, SSBC’s Family Mentor Service offers peer support to parents in Nottingham’s Aspley, Bulwell, Hyson Green and Arboretum, and St Ann’s wards. The service employs local parents, grandparents, and caregivers as Family Mentors who deliver evidence-based early intervention support to families with children aged 0–4.

The bespoke Level 2 Accreditation: Family Peer Support in the Early Years is a valuable aspect of the programme, instilling confidence in mentors and ensuring high standards across service providers. The impact is profound: by the end of 2024’s first quarter, 41% of eligible families were actively engaged, and Nottingham Trent University’s evaluation highlighted significant improvements in child development, parenting confidence, and family wellbeing.

Amanda Boyle, Senior Project Officer, SSBC praised the accreditation for standardising mentor competences and bolstering partner confidence:

“The Family Mentor Service has significantly benefitted from the Level 2 Accreditation: Family Peer Support in the Early Years, by instilling increased confidence within Family Mentors themselves and providing reassurance around the professional skills, knowledge, and behaviours of Family Mentors, across system partners.

“Acting as a risk assessment tool, it has helped standardise Family Mentor competences across the three different providers commissioned by SSBC. As a result, local partners have felt more confident in referring to the Service. We are extremely proud therefore to have won the award for Bespoke Accreditation Centre / Employer of the Year by AIM as it helps to reassure providers of the quality and robustness of the training programme, as well as validate and enhance the experiential learning and lived experience that underpins the Family Mentor role itself”.

Matt Evans, AIM’s Director of Strategic Growth, applauded SSBC:

“SSBC exemplifies how bespoke accreditation can elevate training programmes to national standards while addressing unique community needs. We are proud to crown them 2024 winners!”

Legacy and aspirations

As SSBC reaches its planned end in 2025, the Family Mentor Service and its accreditation programme will continue through additional funding secured as part of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care Board’s (ICB) Health Inequality and Innovation Funding.  Future opportunities to share the learning from and raise the profile of the Family Mentor Service and its accreditation experience are being identified, with the hope that these will in time, garner national interest.

Empowering communities

Since its inception, 116 Family Mentors have been employed, many returning to work or entering paid employment for the first time. The service’s diverse workforce reflects Nottingham’s community, creating pathways for career advancement and raising aspirations. One former mentor, now a service manager, shared how the training programme transformed her career and parenting and inspired her own children to achieve more. “I have been able to support my own son who wants to go into the same field of working with children and families. He starts his GCSEs next year. I have shared my knowledge of all my learning, and he applied this to his work and had mock exams just recently and got a Level 2 distinction in Health and Social Care. Never in a million years did I ever think I could help in his own journey, he said, ‘seeing you work hard to achieve your qualification makes me want to do more too’, it’s been very impactful”.